New Grimm in town
by OneWhoCharms
Summary: Nick thought he was the only Grimm in Portland. Imagine his surprise when he runs across a girl while on a case who shares his abilities and slays Wesen in her spare time. There's just one problem...
1. The new Grimm in town

**XOXOXOXO**

Nick sat at his desk. It had been quiet lately, cop-wise and Grimm wise. Nothing really big had happened lately, and while he was trying to take in the peace and relax, he couldn't shake the feeling something was coming. Suddenly the phone rang.

"Nick Burkhardt."

"Hey, Nick. It's me," Monroe answered.

"Hey, what is it?" he asked. It wasn't in Monroe's nature to call for no reason.

"You're gonna wanna make your way down to the Creston Movie Theater right now."

"Why?"

"If the guy I just saw go in is as bad as he looks, then these people are gonna need a Grimm."

"I'll be right there."

Nick pulled up outside the theater, jumped out of his car, and marched into the lobby. Monroe was waiting for him by the door of a theater at the back wall.

"I saw him go in here."

"You sure he's dangerous?"

"Oh, yeah, and rare around these parts. He's called a Leben Sauger. They track down the ill people who are due for heart attacks and stuff, and then they suck their last breath out of 'em."

"You get a good look at his target?" Nick asked, going into full Grimm mode.

"Yeah. Overweight guy. Wears a suit and has bad taste in movies by the looks of it," replied Monroe while gesturing to the poster of the playing movie. Nick had to agree. It was a sappy rom-com.

"Let's stop this guy from hurting anyone." With that, Nick pushed open the doors and went in.

Monroe waited outside for a minute. "As in, me to?" he asked before following suit.

The theater barely had any people in it; a few in the front rows, a fat guy in an otherwise empty middle one, and a man wearing dark clothes sitting in the row right behind him. The dark clothed man wasn't watching the movie, but rather he was keeping his eyes directly on the man in front of him.

Nick walked down the side isle, and Monroe pointed to the guy. Nick took his place behind the man in dark clothes and waited for him to do something. He didn't want to make a scene for no reason.

Suddenly, the fat guy started to choke. He took a hard swallow and was about to recover, when the man in dark clothes put his hand to the fattie's neck. His coughs became strangled as claw-like nails sprouted out of the Wesen's hand and dug into the man's neck.

Nick put his gun to the Wesen's back and prepared to shoot. "Take your hand away from him now!"

The Wesen looked over his shoulder and smiled at Nick. He rose from his seat and Nick followed suit, not letting his gun lower from his Wesen target.

"Sorry, Grimm. You're not getting in my way," the dark clothed man said in a deep, growly voice. He gave Nick a punch that sent him flying into the empty back row of seats, which received an annoyed, "Shh!" from one of the front row viewers.

"Hey, you might wanna back off," Monroe said, stepping into Blutbaden mode. Suddenly, the Wesen formed a fireball in his hand. "Or, I can just leave you alone."

The Leben Sauger raised his hand, preparing to incinerate Nick with the fireball, when suddenly someone kicked open the door.

The person standing in the doorway was a girl. The light streaming in around her from outside made it hard to tell what age, but you could see that she was decked out in black clothes, a black t-shirt, skinny black jeans, a studded belt, and combat boots. Her face was hidden by a pair of sunglasses, and her square-cut, dark hair fell down past her shoulders.

"Doesn't that burn your hand?" she asked, looking at the Wesen fireball.

Judging by her voice, she was definitely young, Monroe thought.

The Wesen threw his fireball at the girl, but without hesitation she jumped high enough to touch the ceiling and landed on a row of chairs.

"Whoa!" she said, balancing herself out. "Okay, so help me out here. I'm new at this." She looked back at the smoking area where the fireball had blown a hole in the wall. "Who pays for that?"

Angrily, the Leben Sauger marched toward her. She jumped off the chairs and gave him a round-house kick that sent him falling backwards.

She stepped forward and looked down at him. "You know, I was expecting a little more of a fight from my first Wesen." She stopped and held her hands up apologetically. "You are a Wesen, aren't you?"

He let out a grunt of anger and prepared another fireball to throw, but she bent down and pulled a silver knife out of her boot, throwing it at his hand. The fireball went out, leaving a long, bleeding slash across his palm.

"Ahh!" he screamed out in pain.

This time the annoyed viewer did more than shush. She turned around and let out a piercing scream at the sight. The girl looked around at the stunned viewers, and the Wesen took it as his opportunity to escape. Once she realized he was gone, she grabbed the knife and slid it back into her boot.

She looked at the emergency exit the Wesen had run out of. "Next time," she said, then turned and sprinted out the door she came in.

Monroe simply stared at the stabbed seats, screaming pedestrians, and scorched wall, not fully believing what had just happened.

"Uhh..." Nick groaned from where he'd landed.

"Hey, Nick. You okay?"

"I'll live. What happened?"

Monroe gave one more look around him. "You'll hear about it in the witness statements."

**XOXOXOXO**

Nick sat back in his chair, running his hand over the bump on the back of his head. He looked over at Monroe, who was sitting in the opposite chair. Juliette had the night shift at the animal shelter, so he had invited Monroe over to fill him in on what had happened at the movies.

"And she just ran out?" he asked.

"Leaving no trace in her wake."

"Okay. Well, I guess I'm going to be seeing her again."

"Yeah, and by the looks of it she's been practicing," Monroe replied.

"But what I don't get is since when can Wesen throw fireballs?"

"They don't. And trust me, if that was a thing Wesen could do, I would have used it in high school."

"So, where are all these new powers coming from all of a sudden?" Nick asked.

"I don't know," Monroe said simply.

**XOXOXOXO**

Unbeknownst to the two, in the other room, three Leben Saugers were sneaking in and preparing to attack.

**XOXOXOXO**

"You think maybe that girl knows?" Nick asked.

"She did look prepared when he threw that fireball at her," Monroe answered.

"Well, let's hope we see her again."

"Only if you see her in the next five seconds," said a voice from behind them.

Standing before them were three Leben Saugers, led by the one at the movies. Nick instantly went into fight mode, grabbed the lamp on the table next to him, and made it over to the Wesen in one stride. Nick smashed it into his head, and he fell to the ground. The blow wasn't enough to leave him unconscious, and he looked up at the Grimm in a daze.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" Nick smirked.

The other Leben Sauger prepared fireballs to throw, but Nick whacked the lamp down on his shoulders, and then against the hands of the other one.

Backing up, Nick tossed the lamp over to Monroe. "I've gotta gun upstairs. You think you can hold them off?" He looked over to see Monroe turning into a Blutbad, and with that he ran for his gun.

Monroe threw the lamp at one guy's head and prepared to attack the other, but he was hit with a fireball and thrown back against the wall. The leader prepared one more fireball that was about to obliterate him, when the front door was kicked open, and guess who it was.

"Looks like you could use a little help," she said, flicking out a knife.

"What is it with you and kicking doors open?" Monroe asked pointedly.

The girl threw a knife at the Wesen, landing right in its throat.

The leader, who had been at the theater, looked at the slash mark across his hand "Who are you?" he yelled as he threw a fireball at her.

She dove forward and slid across the floor, jumping up as she pulled another knife from her boot, she made a slash across the leader's face. From behind, another Wesen rose up and prepared to strike her down.

"Get down!" Nick yelled from the bottom of the stairs.

The girl quickly did what he said when she noticed the gun in his hands. With the help of the silencer, he fired three quiet shots, and the Leben Sauger fell dead. The girl quickly crawled across the floor and sprung up to her feet beside Nick.

"I take it you and I are in the same line of work," she said with her knife raised.

"Trust me… I'm just as surprised you are."

"Ever heard the saying, 'Two Grimms, one fireball.'?" the remaining Wesen asked while raising his flaming hand.

"Ever heard the saying, 'You talk too much.'?" Nick replied. He fired a shot at the Wesen's shoulder and he fell to the ground.

The girl stuffed her knife back into her boot and looked at Monroe. "What about him?" she asked.

"He's a friend," Nick replied.

"I didn't realize Grimms had friends who were Wesen."

"I didn't realize there were any other Grimms in Portland."

"So you said," she replied with a light laugh.

Little did they know, while they were talking, the Leben Sauger was pulling the knife out of his friend's throat. Nick caught sight of the Leben Sauger, getting up just in time as he threw the knife. The girl turned around, but Nick pushed her to the ground, taking a shot that hit the Wesen in the heart. He fell dead in an instant.

"Are you okay?" Nick asked without looking away from the dead body. When he finally turned away, he was shocked at what he saw.

The girl sat herself up on the floor while her fingers glided over a spot above her eyebrow where the knife had made a small cut. She looked up at Nick, taking in his shocked expression. She then looked behind her where her sunglasses and dark-haired wig were discarded on the floor.

"You're a kid?" Nick asked with eye wide.

"You're blonde?" Monroe asked.

And true enough the girl, who looked no older than fifteen, had long, dark-blonde hair.

Wasting no time, she jumped up and ran out the door, leaving the Grimm and the Blutbad in a stunned silence.

**XOXOXOXO**

The next morning she walked through her room and reached her hand under the bed. Pulling out her boots, she reached in and brought up her knife. She gave herself a slap on the head. How stupid of her to leave her now one-and-only weapon lying around like that. She walked into her bathroom and lifted the lid off her hollowed-out hiding space. Placing the knife in the sheath, she tucked it back in its secret spot along with her one, thick, leather book that rested there. She placed the lid back on the wall.

She gazed into the mirrored reflection on the lid, ensuring she looked normal. She adjusted her floral, purple top and smoothed down her dark-blonde hair, pinned up to where it covered the tiny scar above her eyebrow. Satisfied, she let out a breath and tightened her hair clip.

"Sarah, come on. We're gonna miss the bus," her friend Jamie called from the other side of the door.

She ran out, picked her backpack off her bed, and met Jamie in the hall.

"I'm here," Sarah said in a reassuring voice. Jamie was horrified at the idea of being late for anything.

Together the young Grimm and young girl walked out the door of the Portland children's home.

"Hey, Reg," Jamie said to the bus driver as they climbed in.

"Hey, kid," he replied back.

Sarah gave him a small nod. She didn't want to seem cold, but she'd been a little wary of him since she started seeing him with green scales. The two girls took a seat at the back, while Jamie talked about today's history test. Sarah nodded, but was thinking about the man who helped her kill those Wesen; the man who was just like her. Sarah had a gut feeling they'd be meeting again soon.


	2. Flame in hand

"So, let me get this straight," the blonde women said from her chair. She was sitting behind an antique oak desk. She prided herself on the antique atmosphere of her study. The leather chairs, glass bookcase, and marble fireplace added to the ambiance.

Lillian Redcroft looked at the Leben Sauger, his head bent in apology. "I send your team of accomplished Leben Sauger out on a simple kill job, and you return to me saying, and I quote, 'The girl stopped them? Now tell me, if you were you in my shoes, how would you react to this disappointing news?"

The Leben Sauger's head remained down. "In my defense, she wasn't just a girl, she was a Grimm, and-and she was with another one as well."

This caught Lillian's attention. "Two Grimms?"

"Yes," he replied solemnly. "And when my team attacked the Grimm at his home, even with the fire power you gave them, they had no hope at all when both of them worked together to kill them."

"I understand," she said calmly and stepped toward him. "Grimms have killed and slaughtered Wesen since they came into knowledge of our existence." She took his hand and held it level to her face. "Having one to worry about is nerve-wracking, but two...?" She placed her palm on top of his. "Any reasonable employer could understand those are impossible circumstances." She slowly lifted her palm off his to reveal a flickering fire, dancing across his skin.

He looked at it, amazed. "This is the power you gave my men." He looked at her and she gave him a sweet smile.

Lillian snapped her fingers, and in seconds his whole body was engulfed in flames. He barely had time to scream. The flames engulfing his body left no trace once it was over.

Lillian walked back to her chair and sat down. With a flick of her hand, flames sprouted up from the desk and then faded away, revealing a glass of wine.

She clutched it in her hands and took a sip. "Two Grimms, huh?" She smiled and looked at one of the framed pictures on her desk. "Looks like you might have been right after all."


	3. Strange new faces

_**Author's Note:**_ _Thank you so much for my first review! I appreciate your kind words. You know the drill, I own nothing._

**XOXOXOXO**

Nick Burkhardt sat beside the police department's sketch artist and watched as he drew the face on paper.

"Yeah. Her face was a little round, hair went down her back, and she had oval shaped eyes." He went on describing the fifteen year old girl, who he'd recently discovered shared his abilities, and wasn't shy about using them, either.

"Okay. This about right?" The artist propped up his sketch pad and showed Nick the penciled image.

"Yeah. I think that's about right. I didn't really get a good look at her." How true that was. Once her disguise of a wig and sunglasses had fallen off, she had only looked him in the eye for about a split second before bolting out the door.

"I don't mean to pry," the sketch artist said, "but why are you looking for this girl?"

"She looked to me like she might need some help." He also worried that was true, too.

"Well, I'll run it through the system and see what comes up."

"Thanks," Nick replied as the sketch artist walked away toward his computer. Nick looked down at the picture of the girl. "Who are you?"

**XOXOXOXO**

"Well, what do you think?" Jamie asked. No answer. "Hello? Earth to Sarah."

Sarah blinked a few times, snapping out of her haze. "Sorry, what?"

"I said, 'Còmo limpio el gato.' Does that sound right?"

"Depends," she replied easily.

"On what?" Jamie asked, recognizing the tone.

"On if you're trying to say, 'I clean the cat,'" she laughed.

"Uhh…" Jamie groaned, slamming her Spanish book closed. "How do you do this?" They were sitting on the floor of Sarah's room doing homework.

"I have my strengths," she replied with a smile.

"Yeah. Just tell me how to find your weaknesses."

"You want my weaknesses?" Sarah replied. "Check out my chem grades."

"You know, I think we need a break. How about we hit the movies?"

"Um, actually I can't." Partly because of what happened last time, she thought. "I'm going to be busy looking for work at the animal shelter."

"Of course you are."

"We can go on Saturday."

"Sure." Jamie gathered up her books and left.

"As if friendship wasn't hard enough before," Sarah sighed, falling back on her bed.

She turned her head and looked into the bathroom. Walking in, she lifted the mirror lid off her hiding hole and pulled out a file. She slowly leafed through the newspaper clippings. Kids had been disappearing and reappearing, shell-shocked from torture.

One of the clippings displayed a picture of a mother clinging to her daughter, sobbing while the little girl looked toward the camera with dazed look. Below the picture was a quote from the mother. 'This can't keep happening. Someone has to do something.'

Sarah reached into her hiding hole and pulled out her knife. She gazed out the nearby window. "Someone will," she said simply.

**XOXOXOXO**

Nick stared at his computer screen, waiting for info on the new Grimm girl.

"What'cha looking at?" his partner, Hank, asked as he approached his desk.

"Nothing," Nick replied vaguely.

"So, this would have nothing to do with that girl you asked the sketch artist to draw?"

"He told you?"

Hank handed Nick a flash drive. "Yeah. Asked me to give you this." He sat down in his chair. "Just tell me, does she have something to do with the kidnappings?"

"She might," Nick replied, putting the flash drive into the computer. They watched as information popped up on the screen.

"Wow," Nick said.

Hank patted Nick on the shoulder. "Well, my friend, you sure know how to pick 'em."

**XOXOXOXO**

Over at Monroe's house, Nick threw the stack of printed pages on the table. "Sarah Miller," he said as Monroe started reading the pages.

"Born in Maine and raised by her grandma after her mom died when she was four. Dead-beat dad. Geez, this kid's had a hard life." Monroe shook his head as he looked at the picture on the front page of the file.

"Keep reading," Nick said simply.

"After her grandmother died of a brain tumor, she spent two years... in a psychiatric facility?"

"I know." Nick paced in front of the table. "Freaked me out, too, but check out why."

"Intense delusions of fictitious creatures," Monroe quoted from the file. "She was seeing Wesen?"

"And getting locked up because of it," Nick added. "When I first started seeing things I had my aunt to tell me the truth, but Sarah... She had no one. All she knew was that she was seeing things others couldn't."

"That others couldn't," Monroe repeated and nodded before continuing. "But it looks like she figured it out somehow."

"Yeah. I just wish I knew how," Nick mumbled as he leaned against the wall.

"Well, why don't you just ask her?" Monroe asked, handing Nick a single sheet from the stack.

**XOXOXOXO**

Sarah crouched in front of the dryer once it had finished with her shirt. She folded it up as small as she could and tucked it in her book bag. She walked into the office were Laura, one of the social workers who ran the place, was typing on her laptop.

"Hey, Sarah. What's up?"

Sarah pulled out her usual excuse for her Grimm duties. "I was thinking of going out for walk later. That okay?" she asked with an innocent smile.

"Sure, I don't see a problem with that," Laura replied, smiling back. "But…"

"I know, I know. I'll do my homework first," Sarah said as she began to turn out of the office.

"No, actually there's a visitor for you."

"I have a visitor?" she asked, shocked at the thought of it.

"Yes. They're waiting in your room."

With that, Sarah ran up the stairs. Who could it be? She was just outside the door when she realized her bag was open. Not wanting to be questioned on why she was harboring a set of black clothes in her school bag, she began to zip it up while she propped the door open with her elbow. Her head dipped down to secure the zipper while walking over the threshold. A dark-haired wig fell at her feet. Sarah instantly looked up into the face of the dark-haired man, who was sitting on the edge of her bed. One hand was cupping his chin while the other was holding the knife that she had left at his house. For a while they both just looked at each other. Sarah wondered whether or not she should be happy at the sight of the fellow Grimm, or if she should be holding a knife, too.

Nick, however, wondered what kind of person this fifteen year old girl was that he was about to meet.

"Hello, Sarah," Nick said calmly.

_**XOXOXOXO**_

_**Author's Note:**_ _Well, what do you think?_

_Leave a review if you want me to keep writing!_


	4. getting to know strangers

Sarah stood still as a statue. Should she trust the man sitting on the edge of her bed? She decided that she should keep this private, nonetheless, so she shut the door behind her and bent her head down.

"How did you find me?" she asked meekly.

"Look, Sarah…" the man began before she cut him off.

"And how do you know me?" she asked, getting louder.

"I'm not here to hurt you." He slowly stood from her bed and held his hands up in a calming manner. "I just want to talk."

"Talk about what?" Sarah asked, trying to remain elusive.

"Gee, I don't know. Maybe talk about why a fifteen year old girl is running around hunting Wesen?"

Sarah walked over to her desk, dumping her backpack on the chair. "Why do you wanna know?"

"Because you are putting yourself in danger, thinking you can take these guys on with a single knife."

"Well, if you remember, I had two," she replied defensively.

"Yeah, and it got thrown at your face, giving you that scar," he replied, pointing at her face.

Oh, no. Tucking her hair behind her ear was showing off the scar. Quickly she let it fall back down her face.

"It's nothing," she replied coolly.

"No," he hissed sternly. "It's the bare minimum of what could happen if you keep doing this."

"And what's my alternative?!" Sarah asked in exaggeration, finally flipping out. "Go the rest of my life seeing monsters… Seeing them hurt people and not doing anything about it? Let it drive me crazy?!" She caught her breath and looked him in the eyes. "But I'm assuming you already know what that got me." She rolled her eyes and laughed a little. "So pardon my pun."

She walked over to her bed and sat down. This conversation was exhausting. She placed her head in her hands and then let them run up through her hair.

"You know what?" Sarah sprang to her feet. "I've got a few questions for you!" she yelled, pointing a finger at Nick.

"Inside voices please," Nick reminded her.

"Right. Sorry, sorry," she replied in a lower tone. She turned around, resting her head against the window before turning back and slumping down on her bed. "Who are you?" she asked simply.

"Nick Burkhardt."

With that Sarah's eyes lit up a little. "The detective?"

"Yeah... How did you…?" Nick asked a little cautiously.

With that she sprang up from her bed and raced to the bathroom. When she returned, she handed him a blue file. Inside there were newspaper clippings of his past cases involving Wesen; paper-clipped to pages from yellow legal pads were various notes, bullet-pointed all over the page. Certain words and phrases were highlighted on the clippings and even some faces on the pictures were circled in highlighter.

Nick sat back on the edge of the bed, a little taken back. "You've really done your research."

"I know this is dangerous. Might as well go in prepared."

"Yeah," Nick said. "When did you start doing this?"

"Well, about a month into my second year at the clinic I realized that what I was seeing weren't hallucinations, and that if I was gonna really figure it out, I would have to get out of there first."

"And how did you do that?" Nick asked.

"I stopped talking about Wesen. I pretended I was 'coming to my senses,'" she said, adding air quotes. "And eventually they let me out and shipped me here." Sarah gestured to her room.

"But…" Nick replied, trying to think of just which of the millions of questions in his head to ask her. "The words you know, Grimm and Wesen, where'd you find out about that stuff?"

She looked down at her knife, still in Nick's hand. He sighed and handed it back to her.

She smiled and shrugged. "I got some books and figured it out," she stated simply.

"And what about the little martial arts act?" Nick inquired.

"I took a lot of lessons when I was younger, and I've always had pretty good aim," Sarah replied with a little smile.

"And just how do you know all the Grimm talk, and where'd you get the knives?"

"Like I said, I figured it out," she replied matter-of-factly.

"From books?" Nick asked skeptically.

She nodded.

"Okay." Nick sighed. "I seem to have missed the coming out of _Grimm for Dummies_, so if you could lend me your copy?"

Sarah gave a genuine laugh.

"What about the Leben Sauger?" Nick asked.

She squinted. "Leben- what?"

"The Wesen you fought at the theater?"

"Oh, yeah." She nodded. "Hey, do most Wesen throw fireballs?"

"Actually, they're not supposed to."

Sarah gave him a cunning smile. "Another case to crack."

"Another?"

She got up from the bed and made a gesture for him to follow. When he made it to the bathroom door, he saw her standing in front of a hollowed out hole in the wall, sheathing her newly returned knife, and holding it up next to the second one.

"Don't you love it when couples are reunited?" She put them back in the hole.

Nick walked forward and saw what she had hidden; two sheathed knives, about five folders, a yellow legal pad, a dog-eared paperback, and a small, thick, leather notebook.

Nick reached for the book and flipped through the pages, instantly realizing what it was. "This is a Grimm journal."

"Yeah, it's my soul source of Wesen know-how," Sarah answered.

"Where'd you get this?"

"Someone mailed it to me."

"Someone mailed it to you?"

"S'what I said."

"When?"

"The day after I got here. Brown paper package, no return address."

"Any idea who might have sent it to you?"

She cleared her throat. "Well, actually…"

Sarah was cut off by a knock at the door.

She walked into the middle of her bedroom. "Who is it?" she asked in a tone that made it sound like she and Nick had been discussing the weather.

As an answer, a dark-haired girl with fuchsia tips stuck her head in the room. "Laura told me to remind you dinner is in a few minutes."

"Thanks, Jamie. This is just gonna take a few more minutes."

She nodded and smiled. "Cool."

Nick stepped out and watched Sarah sigh and put her hands on her hips. "Your friend?" he asked

"My best and only. Look, is there maybe somewhere else we can talk?"

**XOXOXOXO**

Monroe was reading the latest chapter in his book when he heard a knock at the door. "Hey Nick," he said.

Nick stepped aside and revealed the young girl who he'd watched fight off a Leben Sauger the week before.

"And the blonde Grimm," he said shocked.

She stuck her hand out in front of him. "I also go by Sarah."

He shook her hand.

"Monroe, right?"

"Yeah," he said a little nervously.

"Nick told me about you," she said, smiling politely.

"Really?" Monroe asked, casting a glance at Nick.

"I had to tell her something."

When he looked back at Sarah, she had her head tilted, giving him an easily achieved drilling look that Grimms seemed to have a knack for. A look that let you know she was seeing the true you.

She straightened her head up and looked at Nick. "You really weren't kidding about the Blutbad thing." She let go of Monroe's hand and walked into the living room, giving it a take-it-all-in glance.

"You know," Monroe said to Nick, who was still standing on the doorstep. "I wasn't all that thrilled to meet one Grimm. Care to tell me why I'd like to invite a kid version into my house?"

"I'm fifteen!" she called out from the living room.

"She's actually pretty interesting," Nick said.

"I know. I read her file."

"Her side of the stories are better."

"Nick, you're not seriously thinking of encouraging her in this?" Monroe asked worriedly.

"Of course not. I just need to find out how she got into all this, and then I'll talk to her."

"Fine," Monroe said, giving in.

They walked into the living room to see Sarah kneeling in front of the coffee table, setting out the contents of her book bag.

"Why didn't you guys just do this at your place?" Monroe asked Sarah.

"Well, Nick's girlfriend is at his house, so there's not really any privacy at his home. And Nick told me this was as good a place as any to talk about our career as semi-mystical bogeymen to the Wesen community," she answered, widening her eyes jokingly at that last remark.

"I'm gonna take that as a compliment," Monroe decided, sitting back down on the couch.

"You should," she said sincerely. "You keep a lovely home."

He smiled a little at her compliment. "So, Sarah. Tell me about yourself."

And she did just that. She didn't go into great detail about her past or personal life, and Nick and Monroe didn't pester her about it. But when she started talking about her Grimm work, she went on and on. She told them how she practiced her knife throwing at trees in deserted areas of the park, the rare times she almost got caught sneaking the crime section of the news paper into her room, and how she started tracking the Leben Sauger leading up to her first fight in the movie theater.

"And I just thought kicking the door open would both distract the guy, and look pretty cool."

They both grinned a little at Sarah's stories, if not a little concerned.

"Anyway," she continued. "After that I turned my attention to the kidnappings."

"Wait," Nick said, abruptly snapping Sarah out of her Nostalgia. "You think the kidnappings are Wesen related?"

"Oh, yeah," she replied, pulling out a file. Inside were various clippings and a folded up map. She unfolded the map, revealing five red dots all spaced out in a circle with one green dot in the center. "These," she said, pointing to a red dot, "are where the kids were seen last and this," she pointed to the green dot, "is where they were found."

"Okay. I see a pattern, but what makes you think it's Wesen?" Nick asked, leaning over the map.

"Well, at first I thought it was just crime, but when I started reading the papers, I matched the names of the victims to my Grimm theory."

The two looked at her blankly.

"Not us Grimms," she said, gesturing to her and Nick. "The brothers Grimm, who I'm guessing where the originals."

"And the theory is?" Monroe asked.

"Fairy tale counterparts," she said matter-of-factly.

"Right," said Monroe.

Sarah's face went blank. Without looking, she pulled up various clippings and held them up to Monroe. "Elena Peers, 'Ella' to her friends, was the daughter of Lindsey Peers. She was an employee at clear glass cleaning company, ad was last seen outside a shoe store. Ruby Myers, a waitress at Granny Annie's diner, was last seen wearing a red parka. James Porter was last seen delivering an order of steaks from his dad's butcher shop."

"Right," Monroe said again in a convinced tone.

"Do you have any idea who's gonna be next?" Nick asked.

"Not who, but where," she said, pulling out a ruler and a marker. "There's always a certain distance between dots and the amount of time between kidnappings. So, I assume the next disappearance will occur, here tomorrow," she finished, jabbing the map with her pen.

"Well, I have to say I am very impressed," said Nick.

Sarah grinned. "Thanks."

"I'll bring this down to the station tomorrow, and we'll take it from there," he said, folding up the map and stuffing it in the file.

All the while, Sarah stated at him with a dropped jaw. "What?!"

"Look, Sarah, you've done a lot of good work here, but there are professionals who are better prepared to handle these situations," he said in a very teacher-like tone.

"I am perfectly prepared for this! I've done all the research, and all I have to do is find this guy before he gets this next kid, and…"

"And then what?" Nick yelled. "What are you gonna do?"

"Well, what are you gonna do?" she countered, jumping to her feet. "Is there some special section in your prisons for these guys?" She took in a breath, shaking her head. "Do the people you work with even know the truth?"

"Do the people you live with?" he asked, rising to her level.

She said nothing, but just stood there and bit her bottom lip.

"Exactly," said Nick smugly. "Sarah, you were in way over your head thinking you could take these guys on in the first place. But I _am_ in a position to do something about it."

Sarah tightened her jaw and in a flash, piled everything back into her book bag and started walking towards the door. "Take me home," she grumbled, charging out the door.

Nick rubbed his forehead and sighed.

"Better do as she says," Monroe suggested.

"I guess," Nick replied while grabbing his keys. "Thanks for letting her in."

"No problem," Monroe said.

**XOXOXOXO**

After Nick had dropped her back home, she ran straight into her room, slammed the door, and flung her bag into the corner of the room. She grabbed a pillow from her bed, threw her face into it, and screamed her lungs out. Who was he?! Who was he to show up out of the blue, when she was doing fine on her own, and tell her _she_ was going over her head to do what she was meant to do! She reached into her bag and pulled out her pocket knife. Pulling out the blade, she just stared at it.

Slowly, she rose to her feet and walked to the center of the room. "I'll show you," she grunted. With one flat screech, she spun around on the spot, threw her knife through the air with deadly precision, and watched it land right in the center of the mirror frame.

**XOXOXOXO**

"So, this is where the kids went missing, and this is where they were found," Nick said at the police station the next day, while he pointed to Sarah's map. "So, the math tells me the next kid is gonna go missing sometime today around here." He gestured to the area as the rest of his team looked down at the map and nodded in agreement as he spoke. "If we send some patrol cars around this area we might be able to catch this guy."

"Good idea, Nick," Sergeant Wu said.

Suddenly they heard footsteps running towards them. Everyone turned around to see a red-headed girl running towards them worriedly. She was wearing a blue denim skirt and a black T-shirt, advertising the White Rabbit Night Club. She stopped in front of them, breathing hard as if she had run the whole way there.

"Please help" she gasped, holding her tear-stained face. "Someone just tried to kidnap me."

"On Lexington?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "I-I was walking and these people tried to grab me."

"Tried?" Hank asked.

"This girl came out and pried them off me."

"A girl?" Nick asked.

"Yeah. She had short, dark hair, all black clothes, and sunglasses. I think she's still there!"

"You think we should go check it…" Hank cut himself off as he turned around to face his partner, but Nick had already vanished.

"Well that answers that" Hank said to himself

**XOXOXOXO**

Sarah was in the heat of battle, throwing punches at the Fuchsbau in front of her. She had run in on him while he'd tried to grab a girl with curly red hair. (To be honest, Sarah was a little surprised she was the only one who had shown up, what with the scream that girl had let out.)

Suddenly she sensed a new presence behind her. She turned around quickly as another Fuchsbau came at her with a growling fox face. He swung at her, but she ducked just in time so that his fist connected with the other Fuchsbau's face behind her, and he fell backwards. Crouched on the ground, Sarah kicked her leg out at the other Wesen, her foot landing on his left shin. He reactively brought his knee up to his chest, bent over in pain. She took advantage and sprang up, kneeing him in the head.

With both Fuchbaus sprawled out on the ground in pain, Sarah whipped out her knife and gave it a fancy twirl in her hand.

"Now," she spoke out to them. "I, myself, am not a fan of that old stereotype that Grimms ALWAYS kill by decapitation, but..." She walked toward them theatrically. "I'm willing to make an exception for you." Suddenly she realized the Fuchsbau that had been punched was smiling wickedly at her. "What?" she incredulously asked him.

No, he wasn't smiling at her. He was smiling at something behind her. She whipped herself around and was met with a tall, grey-skinned, what-she-was-hoping-was-a-Wesen, with a rhino's horn were his nose should be. His eyes flamed with rage.

Although her body froze up, one word popped into Sarah's head. "Dickfellig," she muttered before one quick swing at her face sent her flying to the other side of the ally.

She coughed out in pain, pushing herself up to look over at the Dickfellig, who was helping the two Fuchsbaus off the ground. She began marching toward them, trying to hide the blossoming pain in her ribs. She picked up her fallen knife along the way, ready to throw it at anyone who moved.

"I expected a Grimm to be tougher," the rhino snorted.

"And I expected my mom to get me a dog for my birthday, so some things don't go according to our plans." With that last word, she jabbed her knife into the Dickfellig's arm. An incredibly sore sensation spread across her hands, and she yelped out in pain, backing away.

Stuffing her hands under her arms, Sarah stared in shock at the centimeter of metal that had penetrated his skin. "Son of a…" She was cut off as one Fuchsbau grabbed her by the waist with one arm and restrained her with his other.

The other Fuchsbau pulled a cloth and a small bottle from his pockets, dampening the cloth with whatever was in the bottle, and pressed it to her mouth and nose.

The Dickfellig pulled her knife from his arm, twirling it in his hands admiringly as he gave her a cruel grin. "We were sent here to bag an Alice, but I have a hunch the boss'll like you just as much."

Sarah suddenly felt very drowsy, realizing what they were doing to her. She began wildly kicking and struggling against the Wesen's grasp, letting out muffled screams while fighting to stay awake. But it was no use. Her legs were beginning to feel heavier with every kick, and she was getting drowsier until she eventually found herself slumping against the Wesen into unconsciousness.

**XOXOXOXO**

Nick braked at the spot Sarah had marked out on the map. He looked down the alleyway from the car window, and after not seeing anything, he drove further down the street. Nick had seen what had happened to the other kids, and if some sort of Wesen was doing it, he didn't want Sarah to meet them.

He kept driving until he saw a shady looking guy, with shoulders hunched and hands in his pockets, walking down the street. The guy cast a glance at Nick's car, and in a ripple, he changed into a Fuchsbau. Nick pulled the car over and walked quickly to catch up with the man. Once he was at the opening of an ally, Nick grabbed his arm and pushed him in, pinned him up against the ally wall with one arm and placing his hand on his gun with the other.

"Hey man, what the hell!" the guy yelled. His eyes swiveled down to Nick's gun. "What are you, a cop?"

"Yes, but I'm not asking you as one."

The guy looked confused for a second, and then morphed into Wesen form again before quickly changing back.

"Are you alone, or is there another Fuchsbau lurking around the corner?"

The guy instantly got a worried look and tried to make a run for it, but Nick held him down. "I already had to take a beating from one o' you's today. I ain't…"

Nick didn't let him finish. "The other Grimm, was she a kid? Black clothes, dark hair?"

"Yeah, yeah," he spat out hurriedly, staring at Nick's gun again. "Look, if she's a friend of yours... I didn't know it, I swear. L-look, just don't chop my head off."

"The girl… What did you do with her?" Nick asked, pushing the guy further up against the wall.

"It wasn't just me," the guy quickly replied. "We were a team. Got paid by some anonymous client to snatch five kids, and then drop 'em all back in the same spot."

"And where did you take the kids?" Nick asked. "What did you do to them?"

"I don't know what happened to them. We'd knapp 'em, hand them over to the others, then pick 'em up a few days later."

"This other team… Where are they?"

The guy shrugged. "Some warehouse."

Nick grabbed him by the shoulders, pushing him towards his car. "Take me there," he said coldly, shoving the guy into the passenger seat, and then got behind the wheel.

**XOXOXOXO**

Sarah woke up in a haze. She could barely make out her surroundings, except that she was tied down to an operating table in a very dark, very cold building. She struggled against her bonds, but stopped when she feared they might start to cut her wrists.

She let out a grunt. "All right. I'm awake!" she called out. "You can come out now."

Calm footsteps approached her.

Sarah turned her head toward a woman in a white coat stepping toward her. "It's nice when things work out, isn't it," she said in a calm and cherry way.

"Don't mean to bum you out, but I fail to see how this is working for me."

She gave a hearty laugh. "Oh, Sweetie. Did you read fairy tales as a kid? Oh, I'm sure you did. I, myself, never liked them. You know why?"

Sarah didn't say anything, but that didn't stop her.

"It's because the so-called 'heroes' were never punished for the things they did." As she talked, she hooked up an I.V bag to a little tube that Sarah realized was connected to a needle in her arm.

"What is that?" Sarah asked.

"You see," the women continued, oblivious to Sarah's question, "the worst thing a child can do, in my opinion, is disobey their parents. Cinderella going out without permission, Red Riding Hood deviating from her path, Jack traveling up the bean stalk, going against his mothers orders, and of course..." She looked down at Sarah, stroking the side of her face with the back of her palm. "Alice in Wonderland, running down that rabbit hole and disrupting an entire world's order."

"Actually," Sarah stated coldly, "the whole point of Wonderland was that it had no order."

The woman wiped the smile from her, turning her hand over and dragging her surprisingly sharp nails down the length of Sarah's face.

Sarah yelped out in pain, shaking her head wildly to try and shake of the women's hand.

The women smiled again, but this time she did it sinisterly. "I'll admit," she began, "the other girl we had chosen fit the profile for an Alice counterpart better. But it's not every day one gets to meet a Grimm, is it?"

The woman unhooked the restraints that tied Sarah to the table. What was she doing? As the restraints on her right arm we're fully removed, the woman gently lifted Sarah's arm high above the table and let go. Sarah's arm fell back limply. She stared at her arm in shock, wanting to raise it up and punch the woman in the face, so she'd untie her other hand, but she couldn't even make a fist.

"I can't move," Sarah said meekly, starting to feel very heavy and stiff.

"No, I imagine you can't." The woman smiled, poking the bag. "Paralysis. The process is so much easier when they're not kicking and screaming, but thankfully with the right dosage, there's still enough in them to cry." She moved around the tables, undoing the rest of Sarah's ties. "Because, you know, it's just not the same if they don't cry."

"What exactly do you do to these kids?" Sarah's mouth was starting to tense up as she talked.

The woman leaned over and whispered in her ear. "You're about to find out." She wheeled the table across the floor. "She's ready," the woman spoke out.

Suddenly a light came down on Sarah, and out of the corner of her eye she noticed a small table being wheeled next to her. A figure came up to the table she was lying on, towering over her. She couldn't see his face due to the bright light, but she could see that it was an old man from his outline. From the angle she watched as his hand hovered over the tray beside her, lifting up a sharp, surgical scalpel.

"Set her out," he commanded.

The women began moving Sarah's limbs, so that she was laying legs together, arms by her side. The man held the scalpel a few inches above her stomach, hovering in a circular motion. In the blink of an eye, he flicked the scalpel in his hand, holding it like a pen, and made a long, thin slash across her stomach. Sarah gasped out in pain, only able to open a centimeter of her mouth. The man snapped his fingers as the bright light above her dulled down. Sarah's breath quickened as a Geier stood above her.


	5. Saving Sarah

Chapter 5 -

_**Authors note:**_ the only thing I own are Sarah, Lillian and the Leben Sauger

**XOXOXOXO**

Tears were welling up in Sarah's eyes; the Geier was running the scalpel slowly down the length of her arm. She could already feel the blood from her other cuts dampening her clothes. The searing pain along with the slashes emitted were spreading across her body and she couldn't bear it.

The Geier grinned menacingly down at her. "You know," he said across to his female assistant, who was bringing over a selection of big knives. "Most of the kids they brought us gave in almost immediately. But this one…" He lowered his face within an inch of hers. "She's a fighter." He chuckled loudly.

"Would you expect anything less?" the woman asked. "She may be a child, but she's still a Grimm." With that she gave a sly smile.

_I'm not a child! _Sarah screeched in her head. If she had the ability to use her mouth, she would have yelled at them out loud, but the paralysis drug they'd used kept her from making even the slightest movement.

"I can tell just from the look in her eyes that she would be scowling at us if she could move her lips." He picked up a stiletto knife from the tray the woman was holding and lightly traced the tip around Sarah's lips. "Let's see what we can do about that."

Oblivious to Sarah's torturers, standing in the shadows was a dark haired man preparing to fire his gun.

**XOXOXOXO**

Nick looked on at the scene playing out in front of him. Sarah was lying motionless on an operating table while two Geiers made surgical slashes all over her body.

"Let's see what we can do about that," said the man while tracing a knife around Sarah's face.

Not giving him a chance to 'see what he could do about that,' Nick fired his gun and landed a bullet in the man's shoulder. The knife clattered to the floor as he fell in pain. Nick stepped forward with his gun pointed at the woman, who was now raising a butcher's knife at him. With a few strides, he was close enough that she could swing the knife at him. She made one great lunge, but he side-stepped her and pistol whipped her hand as the knife dropped to the ground. Making a swing at her face, she fell down head first. While she clambered around to retrieve another knife, Nick pressed his gun to her back.

"Don't move!" he commanded.

She crawled across the floor to the other Geier and checked him. Nick went over to Sarah, who was riddled with long, thin cuts across her stomach, and down her arms. The cuts bled out horribly while Sarah looked at him desperately through teary eyes.

"You okay?" he asked.

She didn't say anything, but just kept breathing.

"Hey, can you hear me?" he asked, shaking her shoulders a little.

Still no answer, but her eyes widened at something behind him. Nick turned around just in time to see the women swinging a knife at him. Ducking in time to avoid being slashed to ribbons, he punched her in the stomach, and she fell back to the ground.

"I said, 'don't move,'" he reminded them, and then looked back at Sarah, who hadn't even flinched.

"What did you do to her?" he spun around, glaring at the Wesen lying on the floor.

"Paralysis drug," the women said begrudgingly. "She'll be fine in an hour."

Nick removed the needle from her vein and propped her up against his arm, picking her up. "Move!" he said, pointing his gun at the two on the floor.

**XOXOXOXO**

Nick walked through the hospital halls; he turned into one room, peering through the doorway for a moment before entering. Sarah was lying on the hospital bed, flipping through a magazine. She was wearing a pair of flannel pajamas, but under the shirt Nick knew there were layers of bandages. She had been in the hospital for a week now, and Nick had taken the first chance he had to come over and check in on her.

She turned her head when she saw him hovering by the door. "Hey, Nick." She smiled in his direction.

"Hi, Sarah. How are you feeling?" he asked, taking a seat beside her bed.

"Better than I was a week ago." She laughed in a small voice. "Thanks, by the way."

"For what?"

"What do you think? Saving my butt." She ducked her head. "I'm sorry, and I should have listened to you."

"Yeah, you should have… But that's not what I came here to talk about."

She looked up at him. "No?"

"I came here to talk about the fact that I'm pretty sure this little incident isn't going to stop you."

She suddenly put on a very innocent face. "Why, whatever do you mean?"

"Exactly. Even if you came to your senses and…"

"Uhh…" She protested.

"Even if you _stopped, _they know about you now, and you need to stay safe so…" He pulled out a folded piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to her. "I am giving you this."

"What is it?" she asked, looking down at it.

"My number. If you ever need help, or someone you know gets in trouble, you call me."

She looked down at the paper and then back up at him. "No," she said plainly, handing him back the paper.

"What?" Nick asked, a little shocked.

"I was going around in costume for a reason; they know my alias, not me."

"But it's still too dangerous for you to be going around doing this. I don't like the idea of you ending up in a hospital every other week. I wanna do something to make sure you're safe." As he said it out loud he surprised himself. A few weeks ago he hadn't even known this girl. But since she had appeared, suddenly he wasn't the only Grimm. He had someone who understood what it was like to hide an entire part of their lives from loved ones; to have something almost like a destiny.

A moment went by before she looked him in the eyes with a bright smile. "Teach me," she said clearly.

"Excuse me?" Nick questioned.

"Teach me everything you know… About weapons, and fighting, and Wesen. Everything you know about being a Grimm."

Nick looked at her blankly, lost for words.

""You want me to be safe." She suddenly got a very serious look. "Teach me to defend myself."

In that moment Nick realized something. "Nothing I can say or do is going to stop you is it?"

"Not a chance," she stated simply.

"I probably won't be able to teach you that much, you know?" he warned her.

""I don't care." She shook her head defiantly. "Anything's better than nothing."

"I will teach you… on one condition."

"What?"

"Lose the wig and costume."

She laughed in mock offense, but then stuck out her hand. "Fine."

He shook her hand firmly. The two Grimms sat back and looked at each other, both not quite understanding what they were about to embark on.

**XOXOXOXO**

The nurse looked in on room E9 from behind her desk. The young girl who had been saved from the local abductors was lying on her bed, recovering from her wounds while talking to a visitor.

"Yes, I'm looking at them right now," she said into her phone. "She's been here for about a week now… Yes, she's healing quickly… I will. Goodbye, Miss Redcroft."

Lillian hung up the phone on her hospital contact and began to dial a new number. "Hello," she spoke formally. "It's Lillian."

After a moment of silence on the other end Captain Sean Renard replied, "Why are you calling me here?" He shifted in his office chair behind his desk in the police station. "What are you thinking?" he whispered harshly. The doors to his office where closed, but past experience had taught him you never knew what to expect when it came to Lillian Redcroft.

"Ohh," she moped from her end of the line in mock offense. "I realize we haven't spoken in a while, but really, why so cruel, Reny?" With those last words she gave a sinister grin. She knew he shuddered at that name… At least when _she_ said it.

"Why are you calling?" he asked, trying to sound assertive.

"Well, I just thought you might like to know… A certain issue has raised its head."

"Issue?"

"Yes, the one we had a few years ago… Up _North._"

With those words Renard froze. "I thought that had been taken care of," he said, quite all of a sudden.

"Yes, well, I suppose the old boy was right after all."

"And what about you? What have you thought about it all these years?"

"Well, you know me, Your Highness." Lillian looked into the mirror on the wall opposite her. Her eyes glowed like the fire she conjured. "I never rule anything out."


	6. Reunion, part 1

"So that's what the keys are for?" Sarah asked.

Nick had dropped his mother off at the bus station, and when he went back to see Monroe, Rosalee, and Sarah, he relayed everything his mother had told him.

"Yeah," Nick said simply. He had also told them that Juliette didn't remember him.

Sarah wanted to keep his mind off that. "One thing that doesn't make sense… If we're both descended from... knights or whatever, then where's my key?" she asked.

"Good question," said Monroe, catching her drift. "What did your mom say about that?" he turned and asked Nick.

"She didn't know," Nick replied, still a little deadpan. He got up from his chair abruptly and made his way toward the door. "I'm sorry, guys. I just can't do this right now."

"Oh, hey," Monroe said quickly. "Totally understandable, dude."

"Yeah, we'll see ya later," Sarah confirmed.

Nick silently nodded and left the house. After a while Sarah and Rosalee left Monroe's house, and Rosalee offered Sarah a ride home.

Just before she got out of the car, Sarah asked Rosalee a question. "Could I have a job?"

"Excuse me?" she asked.

"It's just… Well, my usual excuse for Grimm duties is getting a little old." She tugged at her fingers. "People are starting to wonder why I take so many walks. So if you could give me a job, then that would really be a good cover. You wouldn't even have to pay me."

"Most of my customers might be a little put off by a Grimm working the counter."

"I could take stock in the basement."

Rosalee was silent for a moment and then replied, "Well, you would have to help out sometimes," she said.

Grinning, Sarah nodded her head. "Yeah, yeah, I mean, Nick doesn't like me going out without him, so I'll probably be around a lot." They both smiled.

"So, I'll see you tomorrow?" Rosalee asked.

"I can be there at six."

Sarah jumped out of the car, and Rosalee drove away, not noticing the silver BMW parked across the street, watching as Sarah made her way into the house.

**XOXOXOXO**

Sarah arrived at the store, unsure of what to wear. She tried as plain of an outfit as possible; a shirt with jeans, but also giving it a battle-ready touch with knives in her boots.

She opened the door and saw Rosalee hefting boxes toward the basement. "Let me take one of those," Sarah said, sliding the top box into her arms.

"Thanks," Rosalee mumbled, trying to find her foothold on the stairs.

Once in the basement, Sarah saw Monroe shifting jars around on shelves. "Hey, Monroe," she said brightly, giving Monroe a knowing look. She was well aware of his crush on Rosalee.

"Hey," He seemed a little shocked at her presence in the store. "Uh, what are you doing here?" he asked, a little baffled.

Sarah grinned at his shock. "I work here now."

"Really?" he asked.

Deciding not to torture him any longer, she headed over to the other end of the basement and set her box down.

Monroe turned toward Rosalee. "So... You're looking nice," he commented, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yeah, you look nice, too," Rosalee replied with equal shyness.

Sarah giggled. "It's like watching _Golden Gossip Girls_," she gushed.

Just seconds before feeling the awkwardness in the room that followed her statement, the bell sounded upstairs, alerting them to a customer.

Sarah breathed out a sigh of relief. "I'm gonna go get that." She rushed up the stairs before either Wesen could protest.

**XOXOXOXO**

As Sarah walked into the store front, she saw a man in a dark blue suit with salt and pepper hair approach the counter. He was mostly eyeing the store, ignoring the spot where she stood. She waited a moment before making herself known, ensuring he wasn't going to have a woge.

Once it looked like the coast was clear, she emerged from the corner. "Can I help you?" she asked, tracing her fingers along the surface of the counter.

When the man turned to face her, he smirked as he looked her up and down. "Yes, I'm looking for some herbs," he said.

"Well, I just started working here." Sarah grinned shyly. "But I know the herbs that can whip up a wicked tea."

"Actually, a friend of mine has a jar of herbs in her kitchen. It's supposed to provide calming scents," he said while calmly looking Sarah dead in the eyes. "I'd like some of those."

"Oh. Umm, let me just get my boss. She might have a better idea of what you'd need for that," Sarah replied, making her way over to the basement door to call out to Rosalee.

"Actually," he called her back. "I have a list." He held out a folded piece of paper.

Sarah took it from him while studying his face. There was something familiar about him. "I guess I could find this," she said, moving toward the shelves. "It may take a while."

"Oh, I'm in no rush," he claimed as he watched Sarah climb the ladder to the top shelf.

"So, what brings you to Portland?" Sarah asked as she cross-referenced names of jars with those on the list.

"Visiting family," he answered.

"But you said you were in no rush?" Sarah asked, glancing over her shoulder while on the ladder.

"My family is pretty close by," he answered, looking her dead in the eyes.

Sarah's confusion was replaced by shock. Oh, she knew exactly who this man was! "What did you say your name was?" she asked shakily, attempting to mask her recognition.

"I think you know my name," he responded.

Without batting an eyelash, Sarah jumped from the top rung of the ladder and landed, facing the man. "Get out!" she ordered.

"Sarah!" Rosalee gasped from behind her, clearly aghast at this behavior towards a customer.

Sarah continued, regardless. "Get out, and stay away from me!" she yelled when the man hadn't even flinched.

"Oh, come now, Sarah," he said almost sincerely. "Is that anyway to talk to your father?"

_To be continued…_


	7. Reunion, part 2

"So, she just ran out of there?" Nick asked, standing in the middle of the spice shop while looking at the phone number Sarah's father had left.

"Yeah," Monroe said. "After she went all nuclear on him, she stomped down to the basement and crawled out the window."

"And this guy?" Nick asked.

"Said his name was Trevor Miller. He left his card," Rosalee answered, handing Nick a white business card with the name of a local hotel written on the back.

"Any idea where she went?" Nick asked. From the little Sarah had said about her father, he didn't sound like a great guy.

"Not a clue." Monroe scratched his head. "Called her home, and she wasn't there. None of her friends seemed to know, either."

"I have an idea," Nick realized, and with that made his way to his car.

**XOXOXOXO**

Nick pulled up outside the trailer. He opened the door to find the young Grimm sitting silently on the small sofa, leaning her head against the tinted window with one of the many Grimm diaries in her lap.

"Mind if I come in?" he asked.

"It's your trailer." Sarah turned her head toward him with a sad look on her face. "I just come here, 'cause it's got cooler stuff then my bathroom cupboard," she replied blandly.

Nick took a seat next to her and noticed her glassy eyes. She turned away from him, looking out the window.

He didn't say anything, not wanting to push her, but after a few beats he wanted to try and break the silence. "Trevor is a stupid name," he attempted, and it did make her laugh a little before she finally let a few tears slip out.

"You have no idea how many times… When after my grandmother had died or I was in the clinic, I had wished he would just… show up. But now, when I actually feel good about my life, he just comes in and stirs the pot," she choked up at the words.

"Well, maybe he just wants to be a part of your life," Nick suggested. "I mean, he is your dad."

"No!" Sarah replied harshly. "He is not my father. He is the man that abandoned me when I was four."

"Well, then maybe he wants to make up for that," Nick replied, trying to calm her down.

"You say that as though it's something he could actually achieve," she countered through clenched teeth.

"You wanna talk about something else?" he offered.

"Desperately," she replied, sobering up.

"Any theories?" he asked. Sarah always had a knack for easily and quickly coming up with theories for Wesen crimes. "So what's in your files this week?" he asked.

Sarah started to cheer up as she relayed her plans for tracking down the location of her family's key by tracking references in Grimm diaries.

**XOXOXOXO**

Sean Renard was rifling through papers in his home when his phone rang. "Sean Renard," he answered.

"I know," said a familiar female voice. "I called you remember?"

"Lillian" he replied, sliding back in his chair, bracing himself for the following conversation.

"I have some very interesting anecdotes about our little _North_ problem," she told him, her voice tempting and taunting with a little bit of cheer.

"Oh, really? And how much blood needed to be poured so you could find these anecdotes?" he asked, predicting her methods.

"She did a good job covering her tracks, I'll give her that." Lillian chuckled. "But sometimes all it takes is a few misspoken words to put the pieces into place."

"And what was the piece you were missing, Lillian?" Sean asked, not wanting to give her credit.

"My plane lands in half an hour," she said simply, not giving an answer.

"Meet you at the royal hotel bar in two," he told her.

She gave a smirkish laugh. "Where else would I meet you?" She hung up before he could respond.

**XOXOXOXO**

Sarah sat in the school's library, her head leaned against the crook of her wrist, not really taking in the words on the page in front of her. She was so busy not thinking of anything, that it took a moment before she heard the voice trying to get her attention. Sarah blinked at the tall girl standing in front of her; she was blonde and held most of the hair off her face in combs.

"Umm, don't suppose you could help me?" she asked.

"Depends," Sarah responded.

The girl raised an eyebrow. "On what?"

"What do you need help with?"

The girl laughed in response. "I'm looking for the book we need for our history class," she replied. "_Euro-centric 1800 to 1900_."

"Oh, right." Sarah placed a hand to her head. The girl was Charlene, a fellow student from Mr. Owens' class. "Umm, yeah, they have it here."

"Okay, thanks," she began to turn away, but stopped and started rummaging through her bag. After a beat, she grunted in frustration.

"Problem?" Sarah asked.

She sighed. "I can't find my stupid library card!"

"Here," Sarah offered. "Use mine." Sarah handed Charlene her library card.

"Oh, thanks so much. I'll give it back to you tomorrow."

"Okay."

With that, Charlene skipped out of the desk area and wandered over to the shelves, searching the spines until she found the book she needed. She headed directly to the librarian's counter, plunking the book down while she prepared to use Sarah's card.

She looked up at the stranger behind the counter. "You're not our usual librarian."

"No, I'm not," the man replied coldly.

"Are you new?"

"No. Hopefully I'll be gone by tomorrow."

Charlene looked at him quizzically and handed him the card.

He scanned it and looked at it. "I thought _that_ was Sarah Miller," he said while pointing to Sarah sitting with the blank look on her face.

Charlene opened her mouth to explain, but then decided to have a little fun.

"Oh, no. That's my friend Charlene." She suppressed a smile. "There was a little mix up in the registry office. People have been confusing us for a while now."

The man looked at her as if trying to decide whether or not she was lying. He apparently bought it as he handed her back Sarah's library card. "Your card, Miss Miller," he said.

Charlene nodded and slid her book off the counter, walking out the library. After waiting a beat, he grabbed a black duffle bag from behind the counter and followed her out the door. The girl walked out of the school grounds, headed towards an isolated forest path. Good for him. As soon as they were both far away from anyone, the Hässlich pulled his scythe out of the duffle bag and prepared to slay the Grimm Sarah Miller.

**XOXOXOXO**

Lana Grossman walked down the street. Her friends had texted her the address of a new club they were going to, and of course it had to be in the dodgy part of town. A noise caught her ears from the alley to her left. Cautiously, she popped her head in to make sure it was nothing, but before she could back up, a hand grabbed her neck, dragging her into the alley. The man pushed her up against the wall and held out a flick knife.

Lana couldn't stop herself from screaming.

"Oh, shut up!" he snapped angrily.

"Okay," came a voice out of nowhere. The young girl of about fifteen, wearing a denim jacket and khaki trousers continued. "I have to agree with him on that point. Your scream is blood curdling." She walked toward Lana's assaulter as if it were nothing. "But then I have to defend the lady here by telling you," she pointed to the man, "that it's just plain rude doing this to some poor, defenseless woman. I mean even for a Klaustreich, that's kind of… Oh, who am I kidding? You guys have no limits, do you?"

"Grimm", the man growled as he harshly shoved Lana against the wall and stalked toward the girl.

"Yeah, now I have a proposition for you," she stated calmly. "You can be a good little Wesen, let her go, and wait here while I call the cops."

The man scoffed at her without replying.

"Or I can kick your ass and call the cops to come pick up your unconscious body," she stated as if she were talking to a naughty child rather than a knife-wielding maniac.

"Stay out of this, kid," he sneered showing his teeth, making one last attempt to scare her off.

The girl simply pouted. "You might want to watch your mouth, Mister. Talk like that could make you lose your head."

Suddenly the two were engaged in quick and speedy combat. The man kept making quick attempts at stabs and slashes, but the girl simply and gracefully avoided his knife each time, much to his annoyance.

All at once, the girl let out a sigh. "Okay, bored now."

In one hop, she turned half away around and swung her foot, aiming it at the Klaustreich's gut, but he caught it and threw it over her head. She countered by turning it into a backflip, but the man kicked her in the stomach and she fell on her back instead. The man took this as an opportunity to stab at her, but she rolled away, lodging herself out of sight between two dumpsters.

"Any last words, Grimm?" the Klaustreich taunted, brandishing his knife.

"Yeah," the girl replied as she sprang back into sight, holding out a crossbow. She smirked. "Sleep tight." With that she launched a small arrow into the left side of his chest.

The man started to stumble backwards, slumping against the wall as if he were drugged.

The girl sauntered out into the alley and bent over to inspect the unconscious man. "He's not dead," she said, never looking at Lana. "It's a sedative, and he'll be fine in an hour."

Lana shakily stood up. "How did you…?" she asked, not able to finish her thought.

"If I try to explain it to you now, we'll be here all day. Plus, you'll probably freak out," she said calmly. "Right now I just need you to do two things…"

"What?" Lana asked, keeping her eyes on the girl's crossbow.

"Go home and forget what you just saw," the young one commanded.

Lana quickly nodded and ran away as fast as her heels would let her. After the woman was gone, Sarah called Nick and he appeared in the alley shortly afterward.

"Feel better?" he asked her as he handcuffed the still drugged Klaustreich.

"Well, you know he was attacking an innocent lady." she said as she pushed her natural hair behind her ears.

Nick nodded. When Nick first met Sarah she had been going around in disguise, but now she was comfortable doing her Grimm work in her real appearance.

"I was mad and needed to hit something," she continued. "Sometimes things just workout."

"You know, while focusing on criminal Wesen is probably one of the better ways to express your anger, maybe talking about it might help, too," Nick suggested.

"Okay, I'll talk about it," Sarah replied.

"Really?" Nick asked shocked.

"Yeah, but just tell me, at what point did you turn into Oprah?" she countered.

Nick's phone went off before he could retort. Sarah watched as his face hardened a little. Cop business, ahoy! He then looked at Sarah as his face darkened. He grabbed the Klaustreich and shoved him into the back off his car.

"Hey, what's going on?" Sarah asked.

"We got a murder at Jefferson High School."

Sarah froze in shock for a moment before jumping into the passenger seat of his car.

"What are you doing?" Nick asked as he put his key into the ignition.

"I'm coming with you," she stated while buckling her seat belt.

"And what makes you think that?" Nick asked disbelievingly.

She looked into his eyes. "Because Jefferson is _my_ school."

**XOXOXOXO**

The crime scene was fully established by the time Nick got there. He parked on the other side of the road, and they both got out of the car.

Nick stopped her. "You can watch from here," he said firmly.

Sarah tried to protest, but Nick gave her a look that halted her for once.

Once Nick was amongst the throng, he sent Sergeant Wu to retrieve the mugger from his car, and then made his way toward Hank, who then led him to the crime scene in question.

It was in an isolated area of the local forest path. Broken branches, upturned dirt, and a school bag with all its contents spilled out, showed the signs of a struggle around the blue tarp that covered the body marked out with yellow tags.

"So, who's the victim?" Nick asked, crouching down beside the body.

"Female student, 'round fifteen years old," Hank replied. "Staff said they saw her leaving the school a half an hour after it ended."

"Kids actually stay behind after school?" Nick asked sarcastically.

"Nah, some sort of study group," Hank corrected.

"So, who is she?" Nick asked seriously.

"Well, the way this murder occurred we found it kinda hard to tell, but we got a little luck when we found her library card in amongst the books." He handed Nick a small, mud speckled card in a plastic evidence bag. "So, Nick Burkhardt…" He lifted off the tarp to reveal the young, headless corpse. "…meet Sarah Miller."

Nick didn't move or speak for a moment. "One problem with your theory…" Nick stated.

**XOXOXOXO**

Sarah sat in front of Hank and Nick's desk at the police station. After Nick had pointed out that Sarah was, for a fact, alive and well, he and Hank brought her down to the precinct. Sarah sat a lot more uneasily when she heard that the girl's head had been cut off.

"You mean, really like…" Sarah fumbled with her worlds as she traced a finger along her throat. "Oh, God… Charlene." She slid her hands through her hair.

"Look, I understand this must be difficult for you to talk about, but it would really help us if you could just tell us anything that might be useful."

Sarah's eyes flicked over to Nick. "Well… God, I'm sorry I'm breaking down on you like this. Umm, could I maybe get some water?"

"Uh, yeah," Hank agreed. He got up and made his way to the cooler.

Once she was sure he was gone, Sarah leaned in and whispered, "At what point did Reapers show up?" She hissed out the words.

Nick made an attacking hand gesture for her to lower her voice. "Can we not talk about that here?!"

Sarah saw Hank approaching them. "Fine," she grumbled out.

Hank handed her the water, and she quickly gulped it down, preparing herself as if for an interview.

"So when was the last time you saw Charlene?"

"Around three-thirty, I think," Sarah replied. "She came up to me asked about a textbook we needed for history. I leant her my library card, and then she went to check out the book. That was the last time I saw her."

"Did you know anyone who might want to hurt Charlene?" Nick asked.

"No, but then again I didn't really know her very well," Sarah said, playing along with the act.

"And where were you after you left the school?" Hank asked.

"I was with my therapist," Sarah replied simply, not wavering in tone or posture. "Is that all?" she asked.

"Umm, yeah," said Hank with a nod. "We'll call you if we have any more questions."

"All right then." Sarah casually got up and walked away.

"Did any of that seem strange to you?" Hank asked.

Nick didn't reply, taking a minute to calculate his next move. "I'll be right back," he finally said, getting up from his chair.

Outside the building, Sarah was on her cell phone. "So, you'll come pick me up? Good, see ya soon." She hung up and swung round to face Nick. "What's up?"

"Care to explain that little escape act?" he asked.

"I don't like talking about this stuff," Sarah explained. "I already have a therapist for that."

"Well, your therapist isn't going to suspect you for murder!" he insisted in a hushed tone.

"Nick, no one is going suspect me. Besides, I was with you after school that day," she stated.

"Except neither one of us can use me helping you pick out a crossbow as an alibi."

"Technicalities," she grumbled, looking around her. She became more serious as she continued. "We do need to talk. Could we meet later?"

"Sure, after work I'll pick you up."

Sarah nodded and began to walk away.

Nick decided to go on longshot and called out, "Sarah!" When she turned back to look at him, he held out her father's business card.

As she read the name on it, her fingers hovered for a moment before grabbing it from him. "So I can throw it out myself," she said as she walked away.

**XOXOXOXO**

At the trailer, Sarah flipped through a journal while surrounded on the floor by several others. Nick wasn't there yet, so she was researching solo. Apparently Reapers were some sort of society of bounty hunters, who dedicated their lives to killing Grimms.

"Oh, yay," Sarah mumbled.

"_Although Royal clients can usually afford Mauvais Dentes, most Reapers are of the Hässlich species._" Sarah said the name aloud and pushed this one journal to the side, picking up one of the others as she flipped to the page she was thinking of.

"_Hässlichen are troll-like Wesen, capable of above human strength that allows them to match blows with a Grimm._" Sarah read to herself, noticing handwriting at the bottom of the page. She guessed it had to be Nick's. "_The Hässlichen I have encountered have proven to be incredibly enduring of gun shots, knife wounds, and blunt force._"

Sarah bit her lip. "There go my options." She continued reading his passage.

"_I, however, have found that they can be killed by either beheading,_" Well, duh, "_or crossbow bolt to the neck while human._"

Sarah went over to the closet and pulled out the bow she dared say was becoming her favorite. She also grabbed a knife holster that she thought looked really cool. Pulling out her phone, she started taking snaps of the pages.

**XOXOXOXO**

Nick was preparing to leave the station when a man in a suit walked up to his desk.

"Nick Burkhardt?" he asked.

"Yes, can I help you?" he asked in return, getting ready to direct him somewhere else.

"Yes, I'd like to talk to you about your influence," he stated.

"Influence?" Nick asked, figuring this guy was maybe from a school that wanted a cop for career day.

"Yes, specifically the one you have over my daughter," he said, pulling out a business card.

"Trevor Miller," said Nick, eyeing the guy up and down.

"Yes, now why don't you and I sit down and have a nice little talk about Sarah."


	8. Reunion, part 3

Chapter 8 -

"Okay, this is, like, the third message I've left you. I've been in this trailer long enough to get a degree in Hässlichen, and if you're not here in five minutes, I'm going to Monroe's," Sarah ranted. "Bye," she added simply before hanging up and falling back on the couch with a humph.

**XOXOXOXO**

Nick sat across from Trevor. He had come to the police station with one request.

"You want me to convince Sarah to give up being a Grimm?"

"Yes," Trevor replied simply.

Nick scoffed in disbelief. "It's not exactly something you can ignore."

"Nevertheless, I think she can learn."

"And of course she hasn't changed that much since she was four," Nick protested.

"I understand you must have a very low opinion of me…"

"Compared to what Sarah thinks of you, you're my best friend."

"Yes, some things never change." He nodded as if he didn't realize the difference between four and fifteen. "She was always a stubborn child."

"Look, if you want this message to get to Sarah, tell her yourself, but don't expect her to listen." Nick could see Trevor was about to make another point, so he interrupted. "I am with Sarah any time she deals with Wesen, and I look out for her, but she handles herself pretty well."

Trevor Miller's face went cold and he made one final statement. "Did Sarah ever tell you how her mother died?" he asked pointedly.

"I didn't think it was my place to ask," Nick truthfully answered.

"She died because she thought she could handle herself," he replied, never changing his expression.

"So, her mother was a Grimm," Nick guessed.

"Well, you didn't think she got it from me did you?" Trevor asked sarcastically.

"Johanna didn't want Sarah to know about the true nature of her family till she absolutely had to. She would often go out on foreign business trips, working with the resistance or something in France. She gave up her life sneaking prisoners out of a castle… They made it look like an accident. You may want to believe that I'm not the fathering type," he lectured. "But believe me, I'm a father who doesn't want to see his daughter lose her head."

**XOXOXOXO**

Sarah flipped through the photos on her phone she had taken of the trailer's Grimm journals. She sat cross-legged on Monroe's couch while he made tea in the kitchen.

"So, you guys seriously sent their heads in a box?" she called out.

"Well, that part was a little more Nick's idea. But you know, I bought the stamps," Monroe replied a little sheepishly.

"Man, that is so hardcore," she gushed.

"Yeah, I guess," Monroe said, re-entering the room with a tea cup in one hand and a glass of apple juice in the other. He handed the juice to Sarah.

"So, did you know that it isn't a wise idea to carry a bottle of possibly poisonous serum in the same book bag as your history textbook?" Sarah chatted.

"Hence your need for the sandwich bags," Monroe concluded.

Sarah nodded, taking a sip of her juice. "You know, there are some pretty interesting stories in those journals," Sarah commented, but then suddenly realizing who she just said that to. "Well, you know if… You have to…" she stuttered.

"It's okay," Monroe reassured her. "I've heard some pretty gory tales."

"Like what?" she asked perkily.

"Well… There was this one about a Hässlich who killed a women's husband in the army, then he purposely walked into a land mine, so his face would be disfigured, and then he…"

Sarah cut him off. "He could impersonate her husband."

"Get close to her," Monroe continued.

"And ki-" Sarah began before her eyes widened. She yanked out a small, white business card out of her jacket pocket, and then grabbing her book bag, she made a start for the door.

"Where are you going?" Monroe asked.

"I have theory" she stated.

**XOXOXOXO**

"Even if I agreed to help you, which I'm not saying I am, how exactly would I be able to get Sarah to avoid Wesen? It's kind of hard to do."

"When Sarah was in the institution, the doctors said she stopped talking about the monsters. I had hoped it would stay that way after she was released, but clearly I underestimated her," Trevor mused.

For a moment Nick was to shocked to speak. "You knew Sarah was in an institution, and you never got her out?" he asked angrily.

"I realized that her sight had developed, so I thought the clinic's treatment would inhibit this ability. For a while I thought it did, but when I saw the hospital report combined with her involvement in the kidnappings, I realized what had happened."

"How did you get hospital reports?" Nick asked.

**XOXOXOXO**

Sarah shut the door quietly behind her. Picking a lock was one of her oldest skills. She was now in 'Trevor's' hotel room. It made sense; he just happened to show up when her sight manifested, and exactly after a girl mistaken for her is killed by a Reaper._ I mean really_, _how much more obvious could it be_?

Sarah slid her bag down her shoulder and unzipped it, pulling out her crossbow. The weapon was quickly becoming her favorite; of course, she always had her knives, though. She stepped around the room with cat-like footsteps, keeping her bow at firing level.

Stepping over the threshold of the bedroom, she lowered her weapon as she approached the desk, pulling some files out of the (thankfully) open briefcase.

Sarah's eyes widened as she saw what was inside. "Man," she breathed out.

**XOXOXOXO**

Nick walked up the busy sidewalk to where Trevor was waiting outside the hotel doors. They walked in and stood in the elevator as it took them up to his floor.

"A private investigator." Nick stated.

"How many times are you going to say that?" Trevor asked.

"Until it sinks in. She is _your_ daughter. I'm sure if you wanted to know how she would deal after the hospital, you could have, oh, I don't know… picked her up!"

"I know that my actions may not seem all that fatherly, but I wanted to cut Sarah off from any ties that could lead her… lead her to a similar fate as her mother's."

"So, you thought it best to just let her think she was crazy?" Nick asked, not letting him off that easy.

"I thought it best she try and get on with a normal life. Even if it was on her own."

**XOXOXOXO**

Sarah traced a finger along the contents of the file; it was full of pictures of her. Close-ups of her walking home from school and of her outside Rosalee's shop. One picture caught her attention. It was taken from outside Nick's house. She came over after she'd had a nasty run in with a Skalengeck. The fight had left her with a nasty cut on her forehead, that later she told her social workers had happened when she fell off her bike. Sarah was sitting on the table, her hair pooling around her in the hood of her black hoodie. Nick was in front of her, placing a wash cloth to the bloody wound on her head.

_"What part of no Wesen hunting without me did you not understand?" Nick asked_

_"Save me the lecture, will ya? I think I've learned my lesson," Sarah grumbled as she winced under the change of pressure on her cut._

Nick had put a bandage on it, annoying the Sam Hill out of her by giving an all knowing smirk every time he saw her wearing a hat to hide her forehead.

Paper clipped to the other side of the folder was a picture of a four year old. It was her smiling and sitting in the lap of her mother, whose shoulders had the arm of her father draped around them. Sarah pulled the picture out of the clip's grasp and flipped it over to the date on the other side. No wonder they all looked so happy, they had one more week before their lives would go to hell.

**XOXOXOXO**

"There's a lot about Sarah you don't know," Trevor stated abruptly.

Nick shrugged. "She doesn't like to talk about herself."

"Stuff you don't know, because Sarah doesn't know either. It's one of the last things Sarah's mother asked of me, that I give Sarah a box and the secrets she would need to fight this fight when the time came."

"Like what?" Nick asked.

"Like her real last name."


	9. digging up secrets

Captain Sean Renard walked into the lavished bar of the five star hotel. Sitting at the bar's granite counter and running a slim finger up and down the neck of a glass of red wine was Lillian Redcroft.

She turned her head to see him enter and greeted him with a smirk. "You grace me with your presence," she teased.

"I'm sure," he replied, taking a seat next to her. "You had something to tell me?"

She nodded. "Of our _North_ problem."

"I thought we took her head," he hissed. The Norths were a touchy subject for anyone who had been involved.

"We took her head, yes," Lillian agreed, swiveling her eyes toward the ceiling while grinning wickedly. "You'd especially think that thanks to your brother's sudden, shall we say, passionate desire to see the Norths obliterated, he would have done the deed."

"What are you implying?" Renard asked, leaning in.

Lillian traced her index finger along the granite surface of the bar while casting a glance across the line of shelved liquor bottles. "Tell me," she began, "my little prince…" She smirked. "What do you remember the summer of 1997, about what your brother got up to then?"

"You think Eric had something to do with what happened back then?" Sean's brother had been somewhat of a fickle character in the old days; it wasn't truly until after that when he had shown somewhat over-the-top devotion to crushing the family's enemies.

"After years of searching, the majority of the keys had finally been found, and then that summer they just disappeared from under your noses."

"Get to the point, bright eyes," Sean ordered with total lack of sentimentality in the use of her old nickname.

"What if I were to tell you that the disappearance of the keys and the Norths were connected. We may have caught her eventually, but there was that brief period where she was somewhat invisible. That period where... anything could have happened." As Lillian spoke, she encircled her stomach.

"If you're saying what I think you're saying..." Renard trailed off.

"It could either be disastrous, or the thing we've been waiting for," Lillian finished.

"You and Eric still believe in that? What makes you think that would even be a possibility?" Sean belittled the idea.

"If this child is who I think she is, then we need only wait before history repeats itself, and she falls into our laps."


	10. Confrontation

"Like her real last name."

Nick considered Trevor's words, and he wanted to ask what he'd meant, but Trevor had requested that Nick hold all questions until he could show him.

Trevor's hotel room was pretty business class, with a large living space and a sliding door into the bedroom, displaying a king-sized bed. It would have been quite nice except for a grim looking Sarah sitting on the edge of the bed, holding a folder in one hand and a loaded crossbow in the other.

She looked up at the two of them with an austere expression. "I didn't really know Charlene," she said, not moving a muscle. "I'd pass her in the halls every now and then, or stop and say hi after class. But for some reason I was the last person she talked to before she died. I was the reason she was killed."

"Sarah..." Trevor said sympathetically, trying to move closer to her, but she raised one arm swiftly and pointed the bow at him.

"I heard a story," she said, "'bout a woman whose husband was killed in during a war. But the man who did it really wanted her, so he stole the husband's identity and walked into a landmine, so that his face would be deformed, and she wouldn't be able to tell that it was her husband's killer she brought home. Perfect plan, really. Then it got me thinking about how I haven't seen my father in years. I don't know what he looks like."

"You can't possibly think…" Trevor tried to say, but Sarah cut him off.

"I have to give you credit." She held up the file and threw it on the floor. Pictures and papers scattered across the carpet. "You really did your homework."

"I can explain," Trevor blurted out.

Sarah chuckled dryly. "I'd like to hear you try."

Unknowingly to her, Nick was silently shuffling towards Sarah. By the time she was chuckling, Nick was able to grab the crossbow from out of her hands.

Sarah lunged forward to grab the bow, but just slumped over when she couldn't grasp it back. She swallowed and looked up at Trevor. "My father, did you kill him, too?"

"I am your father," Trevor insisted.

With that her expression became very hard. "I haven't seen my father since he abandoned me when I was four. I don't know what he looks like now."

He may not have shown it, but those words affected Trevor deeply.

"Sarah," Nick said, hesitantly crouching in front of her. "I realize that his hasn't been easy for you, and I realize that there isn't much proof from your vantage point, but you need to think now. Even if he is who you think, what do you expect to do?" Nick asked with his hands on her shoulders.

"Arrest him," she replied adamantly.

"On what charge?" H asked in a tone telling her to think.

"If he is who I'm saying he is, then that means he's the one who murdered Charlene."

**XOXOXOXO**

The Precinct was set a buzz with the information Wu had just revealed; forensic evidence at the Riverdale murder scene confirmed that it was tied to a known mob group. This meant the station finally had evidence against them. The bad news, however, was that the real Sarah Miller was out there and still very much in danger.

**XOXOXOXO**

"This is upsurge!" Trevor yelled, completely abandoning the sensitivity required for the situation. Grabbing Sarah by the shoulders, he forced her to look him in the eye. "Sarah, I _am_ your father! Not a murderer!" he yelled again.

"Then let go of me and prove it," she spat back.

With that he let go of her and harshly grabbed a set of keys from the desk nearby. "I was hoping this would go a little differently, but if you want proof, I'll show you!" he said and began to walk out of the room.

"Where are you going?" Sarah asked.

"I'm taking you to what I have been trying to keep from you." He all but slammed the door behind him as he walked out, not waiting to see if they'd follow.

"You got your gun?"Sarah asked Nick quietly.

"You got your knives?" Nick asked cautiously. Neither of them knew what they were getting into. But at the same time neither were willing to pass up the opportunity for answers.

**XOXOXOXO**

Trevor led them to the parking lot outside and toward the silver BMW. As he was about to get into the car, Sarah placed her hand on the front door and cocked her head towards the back seat.

"You're joking," said Trevor.

She just silenced him with a sharp look. Grudgingly Trevor got into the backseat and Nick slid behind the steering wheel. Sarah buckled herself into the passenger seat beside him.

"Where are we going?" Nick asked.

"There's a safety deposit box at Umpqua. What's inside will explain better than I can."

Nick and Sarah exchanged a look.

"You got your gun?" Sarah asked.

"You got your knives?" Nick responded.

They moved to follow Trevor into the hallway. Neither knew what they were getting into, but at the same time neither one were prepared to pass up the opportunity for answers.

**XOXOXOXO**

As the three of them walked out of the front door of the hotel and made a B-line for the parking lot, they stopped outside a silver BMW. The gray haired man began to open the front door, but the girl pushed it closed with her hand and cocked her head towards the back. The gray haired man looked like he was about to protest, but the girl silenced him with one look.

The Reaper couldn't help but chuckle. The other girl had been a failure, a mistake... an embarrassment. But his employer called him this morning with the news that he had the chance to redeem himself. She told him that the Grimm girl was going to be worth more alive than dead, which was fine with him. This time he wasn't going to make any mistakes. As the car pulled out of the parking lot and began to drive down the road, he put the black SUV into gear and followed them.

**XOXOXOXO**

"So what exactly are we going to find?" Sarah asked as she turned her head toward the back seat to face Trevor.

"Before your mother... left for France…" He wavered on how to put this. "…she left something for you. She asked me to give it to you."

"What did she give you?"

"I never opened it. She told me that it was only if you started to exhibit signs of..." He trailed off.

"My heritage," Sarah finished.

Trevor didn't say anything, but he didn't like her saying that. He leaned forward and held out his balled up hand. Sarah held out her open palm beneath it as Trevor dropped a small key into her grasp. "The safety deposit box is under your name, Sarah."

"No last name?" Nick queried.

"Bit of a changing subject," Trevor muttered.

"What?" Sarah turned around to face him with a confused expression.

"Uh, not to alarm anyone, but…" Nick glanced into the review mirror before turning off-ramp onto a dirt road going through the woods. "…but I think we're being followed."

"What?" Trevor exclaimed, moving to look behind them.

"Don't look back," Nick ordered. Without moving his head, he calmly gave out the following instructions. "Sarah, my phone is in the glove compartment. Call Hank and tell him where we are."

Sarah quickly obeyed. Reaching for the phone, she began to dial, but the phone was quickly jerked from her hand. The black car behind them charged forward, yanking them all in their seats as Sarah dropped the cell.

"Damn it," she grunted loudly.

"He's not following us, he's trying to kill us," Nick said.

Sarah leaned forward to reach for the phone, but out of the corner of her eye the caught the black vehicle coming up beside them. Raising her head, and saw it was getting ready to ram them again.

"Ni-" Before Sarah could finish, the SUV barreled itself into their BMW, sending them rolling off the dirt road.

Inside the car, Sarah's head smacked against the window, Trevor bounced against the ceiling, and Nick's seatbelt was the only thing keeping him from being flung through the windshield.

Finally a tree trunk brought the car to a halt, and as all became quiet, the dirt that had been thrown into the air began to settle. The only sound that could be heard was the hissing of a destroyed engine and the crunching of leaves underfoot of the approaching Reaper. Flicking out the blade of his scythe, he cut through the roof of the silver car like a tin can, and in a few swift moves a large square of it fell off completely.

He reached in and gently undid the seatbelt of the young girl. Carrying her back to his van, he laid her in the trunk as gently as placing an infant in a cot. With the same level of gentleness, he placed a strip of duck tape across her mouth and taped her hands behind her back. He was about to drive away when it suddenly occurred to him that this job might include leverage.

**XOXOXOXO**

Nick felt the blood rushing to his head. Something sharp stabbed under his head. He guessed that he wasn't in bed.

"Come on… Think, Nick," he told himself aloud. There was a key, a bank, a car... Sarah and Trevor... Where were they?

Nick opened his eyes, but narrowed them into slits as the daylight blinded them. He moved his hands to undo his seatbelt, despite how much it hurt. Suddenly he felt hands on his shoulders, pulling him out of the wreckage that was once an admirable BMW. Once his brain began to function on levels higher than 'light bright,' pain began again, and he struggled weakly, but to no avail.

"Hey, hey," chided a hushed voice… A hushed familiar voice. "Easy, easy."

Nick felt a jabbing pain in his back as he was completely pulled from the car, (if you could still call it that) until he was resting fully on the lush grass on the off-road, forest floor. Every part of him was on the grass, except for his head, which was resting on the lap of a woman, who he'd managed to recognize once his vision straightened out.

"Mom?" Nick murmured.

"It's all right, Nicky," she said, rubbing the side of his face.

**_Authors Note:_**_ So sorry that it's been so long since my last update, but hang in there, my loyal readers. Coming up next is the penultimate chapter!_


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